I decided to do a pilot lesson today on Rosa Parks. One of the other 6th grade teachers loved it so much he decided to borrow it. I got a very good response to it. We both decided that we are going to do a weekly topic on Black History month next year.

Question: Can you help me with suggestions for other topics and historical figures for my 6th graders? Keep in mind, these are Korean kids for whom English is a third language (I have to simplify the language). They already know about Martin Luther King, Jr. They knew about Rosa Parks, but they were not familiar with the concept of segregation until I taught them today. I also decided to talk about Emmett Till (and I am finishing up a lesson that ties him and Trayvon Martin together, since they asked if it still happened).

I've decided not to do slavery, because it just makes me pissed off and I decided NOT to sanitize anything I give to my students.

My kids had a lesson on Rosa Parks yesterday. They were shown a youtube video of her speaking, and the lesson was centered around why we call he birthday the "day of courage" and we talked about the basics of segregation.

I think you should teach about these historical figures, then have a class discussion/debate on how it ties into segregation and the effects that person's life had. ETA: even if it is a little dumbed down for language. (depending on how old your students are) Also kids love videos.

Flags
of Africa? Each child picks a country and tells about the country,
maybe draw traditional clothing and search for local dishes? Compare and
contrast differences between that country and Korea? (just replace
country with person if this is too difficult for them)

Roots: Tell them about Roots then have them do a mini-family research of their own.

Compare and contrast Korea customs with African? Birth, coming of age, death, family life and holidays

Thanks for the suggestions, I am taking notes and coming up with ideas on how to incorporate everything. It was a practice lesson, so I am making some major adjustments. I threw in a word about Emmett Till (they are 12 and 13 years old--almost his age), for the purpose of really connecting with the gravity of the situation, but there were a couple of images that, as I think about it now, *might* be seen as overkill. I also really thought about WHO may be teaching this next year. I work with 2 other 6th grade teachers and to be perfectly honest, I don't know if I would feel comfortable with them talking about Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin in a meaningful way. I think the only reason why it got the reaction I was looking for is because *I* was teaching and I shared that these were the real experiences of members of *my* family.

The kids in the other class really liked the lesson, but they were half-hung up on "the white guy" teaching it to them.

Anyhow, I am going to dig up some vintage actors and actresses for an activity.

I like the Roots idea and a tie in to family histories. I have an idea about how to execute that and it can lead into stories about Korean historical figures (trying to find examples of women--Korea is a very male-oriented society).

Okay, so apparently I was worrying over absolutely NOTHING. I am going to go ahead and create the lesson plan for my Emmett Till lesson. One of the American teachers was hung up over the violence--particularly the image of Emmett's body at his funeral.

I went to a Korean teacher and asked him his opinion about graphic images in this kind of lesson. Rosa Parks is apparently in THEIR history books. HE teaches his 5th grade about a massacre that happened in Korea with images of people being killed. He also showed them images from the Holocaust. I asked if anyone complained and I was worried about sanitizing history. He said, "Facts are facts. It happened. We aren't teaching anything that's untrue." It generated a very good discussion, so I think I'll move forward with it. (I'm just going to have to present it in such a way that I feel comfortable with the other teachers using the lesson).

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